Privacy is a top concern for people online, despite the fact that many want more personalized experiences from brands.

With the constant decline of network television and print media, marketing strategy is shifting to the digital space. This has also seen increased competition in the new medium, forcing marketers to look for ways to personalize content to break through the noise and get to individual consumers.
While this approach might enrich the customer experience, there is always the risk of companies having too much information about our personal affairs. It is even more dangerous when we are poorly informed about the specific types of data collected about us or how these companies use the data.
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A growing patchwork of domestic and international data privacy bills are being rapidly bolstered and enacted

Recent data privacy scandals have sharply focused the attention and regulators and lawmakers on big data, ad tech and direct marketing. In response, a growing patchwork of domestic and international data privacy bills are being rapidly bolstered and enacted.
Digital marketing, by its very nature, involves the collection, use and dissemination of personal information, in one form or another. The recent onslaught of data privacy legislation has left marketers scratching their collective heads as to what "personal information" means nowadays and how they can comply. Interestingly, very similar considerations have the Federal Trade Commission calling on Congress to enact federal privacy legislation that balances consumers' concerns with business' need for clear rules of the road.
How has all of the legislative activity actually impacted digital marketers? How is it likely to do so moving ahead?
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How quickly and precisely you respond after an online security incident determines whether you retain customers

Many small business owners think it won't happen to them. They're too small, and hackers only seek out big targets like banks, insurance companies or big-box stores. Unfortunately, when it comes to a cyber attack, the size of the business doesn't matter. It's likely not if you'll suffer an attack, it's when.
With anti-virus software and firewalls in place, a small business can feel a certain sense of security. But attacks and data breaches can still happen. Many reports suggest the likelihood is on the rise.
So, if you own a small business and your website or data is hacked, what can you do to restore and regain your customers' trust? This may come as a surprise, but the way in which your business responds (hopefully with resilience) to an attack may mean more…

One of the biggest news stories this week has to be Google being questioned by Congress about how search works, data privacy, China plans and political bias. In just under four hours of questioning, the covered a lot of ground, some of which our roundup will take a look at.
When it comes to marketing and advertisiting in the UK, the big announcement was that negative gender stereotypes are going to be banned in adverts. In a bid to avoid stereotypes causing real-world harm, new regulations are st to come into effect in 2019.
Our roundup also takes a look at the concerns that marketers have about the impact that Brexit could have on the free flow of data.…

What Blockchain is and how it will affect the future of digital marketing and customer data privacy

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain technology has been in the news for the past few years. Almost everybody in the corporate world has heard of it, one way or other. However, only a few know what exactly this buzzword is all about.

In this world of cyber-crime and data theft, no one wants to compromise on data security. It is of utmost importance. Blockchain was originally developed for secure transfer of value, from one person to another without the need of an intermediary like a bank. It is a network of distributed databases in which the data is encrypted via cryptography and provides an easy way to send, receive, record data, and trade digital currencies.

One of the best things about Blockchain is that it is decentralized. It…

Chart of the Day: Almost Half of Young Facebook Users Have Taken A Break From the Platform

Facebook is still the outright leader in terms of social media userbase and frequency of use. The increase has slowed but there are also other areas in which the giant has seen a change in demographical statistics. Pew Research Centre performed a survey to see how the relationship had evolved between in its 18+ US market.
The survey took place in the two months after the Cambridge Analytica scandal (May/June 2018) which means that opinions would have been affected. The most surprising stat is that 48% of people said that they have taken a break of several weeks or more within the last year. This shows that the addictive side to platform has wained from its previous heights. At one point FB said half of its users signed in every…

Marketing strategy can use privacy as a strength, not a weakness

There has been a lot of controversy about data and privacy for businesses and consumers alike in 2018.This has been highlighted by the introduction of GDPR in the EU on May 25th, which has heightened consumers’ concerns about privacy. When you look at recent incidents such as Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, companies have been alerted to ensuring that regulations are met and revenue is not affected. In this article, I’m going to look at ways that businesses can see data privacy regulations as a marketing tool. I’ll include good and bad examples to help drive some points home.
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Let’s look at an example of where the response to privacy by marketing, perhaps goes too far,…

Innovative First Car Quote project stalls just before launch

You'll know that Facebook is the largest social media network in the world with over 1.13 billion daily active users and 1.03 billion mobile daily active users. Advertising on Facebook has major advantages as companies can proactively target individuals based on their profile, that’s their gender, age, location and many other demographics. You can even target users based on their favourite TV programmes. Advertising IS Facebook’s business, looking at the revenue for the last quarter that was 6,239 billion US dollars, which represents a 63% increase since 2015.
Whilst Facebook captures more data than any other network, it has detailed policies on how the data can be used. It states “Advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations. Failure to comply may result in a variety of consequences, including the cancellation of ads you have placed and…

Data-driven marketing: How to tackle the tricky topic of trust

Thanks to a convergence of tools and technologies, marketers today have unprecedented access to consumer data. This has opened up a world of new opportunities for marketers, who are now better able to identify the consumers who are interested in their products and also establish what their preferences are in terms of how they are engaged.
Marketers have never been more capable of delivering the right message at the right time. However, while basic data such as the browsing history and past purchases are easy to obtain, rich data such as a person’s interests cannot be collected without cooperation from the consumer. And while customers were historically fairly liberal about the sharing of their personal data, there has been a noticeable changing of attitudes in recent years. This affects the data-customer-relationship.
'The important thing to remember…

New security vulnerability potentially “bigger than Heartbleed” - are you prepared?

Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Register summary of security vulnerability
We wouldn’t typically report security vulnerabilities to our readers since they are more relevant for an IT audience to act on, but after the Heartbleed security bug from April 2014, many mainstream news outlets are reporting this, so you may well be asked about what you’re doing about it to protect customer data!
Remember that Heartbleed was linked to personal data breaches at Community Health Systems, a US hospital group that manages more than 200 hospitals, Canada’s tax agency, UK parenting website Mumsnet and the developers of Call of Duty...

What is Shellshock?

Shellshock is a vulnerability to systems within the ‘bash’ shell processor which runs on different versions of UNIX/Linux. Since Apple OS X uses a derivative of this it could cause developers…